Resilience as a Psychopathological Construct for Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Understanding of the psychopathology of various psychiatric disorders is evolving, with newer avenues of research enlightening us from genetics, epigenetics, functional neurobiology, neural circuits, hormones and social/environmental determinants. We are now aware that neurobiological factors are contributing to the development of psychiatric illnesses coupled with their interaction with psychosocial factors. Resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back after an adversity or life event that was traumatic and life-changing. It is a factor that is a unique psychopathological construct as it is a biopsychosocial factor which determines an individual’s response to an illness and recovery from the same. Resilience is a human capacity to adapt swiftly and successfully to stress and to revert to a positive state. There has been now a paradigm shift in the understanding of resilience with respect to stress risk vulnerability and such dimensions of psychopathology. Resilience is a factor that must be evaluated in every patient and that shall help us determine the outcome of psychiatric disorders and will also be a determinant in the occurrence of relapses. Early identification of vulnerable patients shall lead to the implementation of resilience-based interventions in these populations and shall prevent against future occurrence of these disorders. In this chapter, we posit the construct of resilience as a psychopathological construct for mental disorders.